by Cat Porter
Butler lit a cigarette, taking a long drag. “Was this before or after they held you prisoner?”
“After.”
I told him about my rescuing “Rena,” without telling him it was Lenore. About not being able to reach Dig when we were bleeding on the side of the road, about Jump being an asshole and refusing to help me. I didn’t mention meeting Tania. That was up to her to share or not share with him.
“I managed. I survived, and got done what I had to get done.” I ended the tale. “Jump...that fucker. I was never going to forget what he’d done to me.”
“That was ’cause of me, you know—Dig getting married out of the blue. They’d kicked me out for flirting with his old lady, sent me to the chapter up north. He married her in a flash the next fucking week. Things were crazy for a while there.”
I let out a laugh. “Well, don’t expect a thank you from me. Things might have worked out differently, who the fuck knows. Doesn’t matter now. I got safe. Here I am.”
“You’re a patient man.”
I shot him a look. “I need to be if I want to get the job done right. Any job. Many times, a situation presents itself—like Reich’s bomb at the Jacks’ clubhouse, and I happened to be there. Purely random. That shit is real sweet when it works out, isn’t it? I slipped right in and got done what I’d been wanting to do for years. No big fucking showdown, no fuss, no mess during, and especially after. The best part, Jump was conscious. Looked me straight in the eyes. He knew, and I saw his fear there.”
Butler averted his gaze and tossed what was left of his cigarette to the ground, crushing it with his boot. Had I made him uncomfortable? Wasn’t that a fucking shame.
“The next best part, I didn’t have to get rid of the body. Your club got itself a new martyr and a fancy funeral, not a vanishing in the dark of the night.”
“Oh, we should be grateful?”
“You should,” I said. “Without Jump riding your ass, you got yourself a good chance to rise the ranks again, if that’s what you want.”
“I only wanted back in. That was enough for me. To be in good standing in my brothers’ eyes, to bring something to the table. Not to take away again. Not that!”
“You accomplished what you wanted, Butler, and I got what I wanted.”
Simple as that. Logical.
His eyes narrowed. “And the blame gets placed on Reich’s dirty shoulders, just where you wanted it, am I right?”
“At the time, I didn’t know he was the one who set that bomb, I thought it was the Blades. But yeah, it all works out real nice, doesn’t it?”
Butler only chewed on his lip, a hand running through his blond hair.
“Patience, my friend, is an important virtue to cultivate,” I said. “That taste of anticipation brews on the back of your tongue for years, and finally, finally, it transforms into a glorious amalgam of blood, satisfaction, and burning pleasure. It’s lingering still.”
Yeah, I could taste it, and I liked it. I made a sucking sound with my teeth as I shoved my gloves back on my hands.
Butler pulled back from me. Was he deliberating? The deed was done now. Jump was dead and buried, and a new light was dawning for all of us.
“And what about Reich?” he asked. “After what he’s done to Tania? What he’s trying to do to you and your club?”
New dawn for damned sure.
“What was that word Tania used?” I asked him.
“Unequivocal?”
“Yeah, that.” Fucking perfect. “Looking forward to making that happen with Reich and his cohorts. You deliver the girl tomorrow. Tomorrow will be a very, very good day.”
56
“She’s all yours.”
Butler had arrived with his pretend old lady, now his official ex. Fucking stellar acting skills. He played the pissed-off cheated-on boyfriend to the hilt.
Nina ran to Catch’s arms, relieved, pouting. Butler had clued her in just right.
“What the hell is going on?” Reich eyed them from the sofa where he sat with Led and a couple of his men, his voice sharp. He was getting it now.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Butler gestured at Reich.
“Reich’s been staying here since your little event,” I replied.
“Event? Is that what you’re calling it?” Butler yelled. “This is bullshit. We’ve been looking for him for days now. He’s gotta answer for killing my prez.”
“Butler, you need to leave now,” said Catch, his arm firmly around Nina.
Reich’s eyes bulged as he rose to his feet, his focus entirely on Nina. “I’ve been trying to call you, Neens. You haven’t been answering your phone. What are you doin’, sweetheart?”
Nina didn’t answer him. She only wrapped herself up tighter in Catch.
“Nina’s my old lady now, Reich,” Catch said. “You got something to say to her, you say it to me. Otherwise, you’re done.”
“Watch how you talk, asshole!” shouted Led.
“Done? Done? What the fuck? Done?” Reich turned to me, his face red. “You gonna let your boy talk to me that way?”
“She caused a ruckus with my club and Butler’s. But all the drama’s over now.” I shot Butler a look.
Butler raised his hands in the air. “I know I’m done.”
“Neens, you need to come home with me and your sister and let us take care of you,” Reich said. “You need to be with your family, with people you trust.”
“I’m her family now,” Catch said. “This is where she belongs. With me.”
I pulled in a deep breath at the confident, firm tone in his voice.
“You told your sister about this?” Reich ignored Catch. “We thought you were coming home with us today. You’d said—”
“I’m staying here with my old man,” Nina said.
“Your old man, huh? I’ve heard that shit before.” Reich glanced at Butler who made a face. He didn’t give any fucks.
“You need to hear it now,” she said. “I’m with Catch, and I’m staying with him here in Nebraska. I love him, and I’m pregnant with his baby. I’m not going back to Ohio with you and Deanna. This is my home now.”
“No.” Reich shook his head, his teeth dragging against his lip. “No! Your sister’s waiting for us back at the motel. She’s waiting for you to meet her there, like you said you would. You lying, cheating little—”
“Yeah, she is a cheating skank. I hope you’re proud of her,” Butler muttered.
“You’re such a cocksucker!” shouted Led.
“Shut the fuck up right now! All of you!” Catch said.
“This ain’t right,” said Reich through gritted teeth. He was a simmering iron cauldron of outrage, animosity, and desperation.
“You know what’s not right?” Butler held up a flash drive. “This.”
The color drained from Reich’s face. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“The right thing, imagine that?” Butler’s eyes flared.
“You’re nothing but a two bit thief!” Reich’s voice seethed.
“I am,” said Butler on a dry laugh. “I wanted your cooperation on a deal for my club bad enough to force you. Bad enough to steal from you, blackmail you. I followed your invisible trails and found out your little secrets. You knew that if I told Finger what you’ve been doing, he’d wipe the floor of the Flames’ national clubhouse with your ass. And you’d not only be out but shamed, backs turned on you. Power taken away. Money gone. And where would the great Reich be then? I don’t think those VIP clients of yours would come to your rescue, do you?”
“Clients?” I asked.
“Yeah, politicians, big-business millionaires, crime lords, a few celebrities, too.”
“What are you talking about? Drugs, weapons?” asked Catch.
Everyone was listening, eyes glued on Butler.
“Drugs were
only the party favors here, the thank-you-for-your-business swag,” Butler continued. “No, Reich catered to one of a kind personal tastes. Snuff films, kiddie porn, gay porn, sex slaves—male and female. All made to order according to clients’ likes and dislikes. Reich here is a first rate entertainment mogul. Huge moneymaking business, and all of it going into a single pocket. His. I know the Flames have a history with a lot of that shit—legendary, in fact.”
“We shut it down decades ago after too much heat with the FBI.” I stated the obvious for my men, making my point clear.
“Well, news flash—Reich, your national VP, quietly resuscitated it all on his own. Only, this time, underground, way underground. And this here”—Butler waved the flash drive that he and Nina had stolen from Reich—“this little stick has the private information of every client on it. Not just names, dates, places, but also all their extra-special tastes and quirky preferences. You can imagine, if this shit got in the hands of, let’s say TMZ, right? The backbone of this business is keeping the info-sharing down to the barest minimum. Reich is their only contact. No go-betweens, no secretaries. Just him. It’s key for their confidentiality and his offshore bank account, of course. This shit gets out, he’s gonna be burned to the stake in more ways than one.”
“That’s my business! Mine!” Reich shouted. “You’ve got no claim on it.”
That wild prairie fire flamed in my veins, lapping hungrily at Reich.
“You had that in your hands all this time?” My tone was harsh. “What were you gonna do, Butler? Use it to bait me, offer it to me like a fucking carrot, to make our tentative agreements go your way? Get thicker cuts out of us?”
“Why not?” Butler shot back.
I slammed a fist on the table at my side, and Butler’s face tightened. A frozen silence gripped the room.
“Reich does have a point, though,” Butler said.
Reich’s head perked up at him.
“This is none of my business. Not anymore,” Butler said. “It used to be a family issue for me. Nina was my old lady after all, and I got her out from under this animal. But she’s not my old lady now. Now, this really isn’t my business, is it?” Right on point, Butler brought out his legendary fuck-it swagger.
Reich’s lips drew back in a snarl. “Give it to me.”
His panic was fucking delicious.
Butler shot him that shit eating grin of his. “I’m giving it all right.” He tossed the flash drive at me, and I caught it, my fingers curling over it tightly.
“You motherfucker!” Reich exploded.
“Yes, I am a motherfucker,” Butler said, making a show of wiping his hands. “And now I’m done with you.”
I gestured at two of my men, who immediately grabbed Reich by the arms. I held out the flash drive to Den who took it and hooked it up to his open laptop on the table.
I raised my chin at Butler. “Get out.”
“You don’t expect me to walk away now and leave Reich standing, do you?” Butler asked.
“You don’t have a choice here, Butler,” I replied. “You’re one Jack among many Flames and on our property. Unless you’ve got a death wish, you need to leave now while I still give a shit. I got business to take care of here.”
“You lied to me, Finger! He’s ours!” Butler shouted.
Den raised his head from his laptop screen. “It’s all here, Prez, just like Butler said. Plenty of fucked-up shit. Long list of names and info. Goes back for years.”
Finally, I had Reich in a way that I’d only imagined years ago. Completely by the fucking balls. But I wasn’t that kid screaming for vengeance and striking out in the only way I knew how, with my knife in the opiate dark of the night.
No.
Now Reich was sober and awake, eyes wide open, feeling the sharp rip of my blade through his flesh. Knowing it was me.
“Reich is mine,” I said. “The second you leave, I’m going to blow his fucking head off myself.” I turned to Slade. “Pick up the old lady and bring her here.”
Slade lifted his chin and stalked off, his phone at his ear.
“What’s going on?” Nina asked Catch, her voice thin. “Why is Deanna coming here? They’re not going to hurt her, are they?”
“It’s all right, baby.” Catch rubbed her shoulder. “We just need to talk to your sister about what she knows.”
I motioned to two of my men. “Get the Jack off my property.”
They grabbed Butler.
“Fuck you!” he hollered, shoving back at them.
“Leave, Butler, or we’re gonna have problems you haven’t even dreamed of,” I said on a hiss.
Led charged at Butler, his face red. “You’re going to pay for this, you son of a bitch!”
Two more of my men stopped him in his tracks, yanking him back.
“Never trusted you! Never!” Led shouted, bucking in their hold.
“Oh, don’t get me started with you, asshole!” Butler replied. “You always wanted a piece of my woman from the very beginning.” He gestured at Nina. “You tried so hard, but she never wanted your crooked dick, did she?”
My hand itched. My heartbeat slowed, every sense loaded, primed.
“You!” Reich yelled. “You didn’t deserve her, you son of a bitch!” He lunged toward Butler, a gun in his hand.
I slid my Smith & Wesson 1911 from the back of my jeans, released the safety, and fired. Reich’s head knocked back, and he crumpled to the floor, the thud the only sound in a sudden, tremendous silence. Blood spouted from the raw opening my bullet had gouged in his forehead. Led fell to his side, a moan on his lips, his hands on Reich’s lifeless chest.
For injustices of our past, our present. My future.
“You did good, Kid.” My father’s shadow passed through me.
That euphoria colored my vision, filling me with clarity, calm. Washing me with satisfaction.
Rena’s eyes lit up at me from across that wild, rowdy smoke-filled room, through men’s laughter and howls, through chains scraping and pulling, through the slice and chop of blades. Her growing smile lit me up, and I took in a slow, long breath on its blaze, my heartbeat steadying once more.
I shot Butler a look. “That good for you, Jack? Cause that’s good for me.”
“Yeah. Yeah, that’s good for me,” Butler muttered, shifting away from the carnage.
I pushed the safety back up and tucked my gun behind my back. “Get out of my club.”
57
“That’s everything I know,” mumbled Reich’s old lady, Deanna.
She’d been uptight and snappy when my men first brought her in from the hotel in Deadwood where she’d been holed up waiting for Reich and Nina. When she stepped into the clubroom, her eyes had followed the prospects who’d been scrubbing the floor with bleach and mopping it over with ammonia. She’d slowed down, but she’d kept moving. She knew. I’d bet she’d been prepared for years now.
After sitting in a hard wooden chair in my office with me, Catch, and Drac as we went over every detail of Reich’s financials with her, she’d relented, bit by sour bit. Money stashed in dummy corporations, in her kitchen pantry in boxes where cookies, macaroni, and cereal ought to be. In winter comforter covers packed in her closets. In hollowed out speakers, stereo components, DVD players, fake books in her living room. In taped up packets in her attic walls, in an old rusted hot water heater, a broken vacuum cleaner in her basement
Catch got off his phone. “They’re here.”
I glanced at the bank of security monitors to my left. Each national officer of the Flames of Hell was on my property. President, Treasurer, Secretary, Sergeant at Arms. Their eyes flicked over the large room. Beers were put in their hands.
“They’re here?” Deanna said, her voice thin.
“They came to see what your old man’s been up to. It’s time for them to face facts.�
� I slanted my head at her. “We’re done. You spend some time with your sister. Two of my men will be taking you home to Ohio and getting the cash from your house. I’ll leave you with this amount.” I slid a piece of paper towards her. Her eyebrows lifted. Was she pleased or disappointed?
“How’s that look to you?”
She squirmed in her chair. “That’s, uh, very fair.”
“Fair? Pretty fucking generous is what that is. What do you say?” said Drac, his tone as sharp as his fanged teeth now showing.
A frown passed over her already pinched face. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, that’s more like it. Now move.” Drac motioned for her to get up quickly.
“Get her out of here from the back,” I said.
Catch led Deanna by the arm out of my office, and handed her off to another one of my men for safekeeping and transport to Catch’s house, where Nina waited for her.
I headed into the meeting room, Catch and Drac at my sides. Four hardened faces looked up at me. They were on my turf now. The elite. The elders. The select elect. The higher ups of the Flames of Hell.
My captive audience.
“Welcome.”
“What do you got?” Taz, my National President said. “This is serious shit, man, these allegations. You fucking killed him? Just mowed him down?”
“I stopped him from killing someone in my own house. And first of all, due to his obsession with his sister-in-law, he ended up killing the president of a friendly MC right next door to us. Set off a bomb on their property. That kind of crazy is not good for business or our reputation. But at the center of it all is this—”
I raised my chin at Den, and he went at his keyboard. Up on the television monitor streamed the evidence of Reich’s great subterfuge. Accounting spreadsheets tallying up all his expenses, his profits. And what profits they were. At the end of the day, over seven figures.
Taz drummed a hand on the oak table, his concentration focused on the screen. Watts, the Treasurer was on the edge of his seat, his eyes jogging over each set of figures presented, his lips moving. Lenox, the Sergeant at Arms shook his head, gripping his beer bottle tighter, rapping it against the table in a steady rhythm.
